This study investigates the impact of partial versus full mirror use on body image in a beginner-level ballet class. At the end of a seven-week period, researchers distributed an online survey inclusive of qualitative questions to two groups of female collegiate students enrolled in separate beginner-level ballet courses taught by the same…

As an artistic activity, weaving traditions have been passed down by women weavers from generation to generation in Sumba, Indonesia. Women can express their resistance to an oppressive situation through aesthetic engagement using handwoven textile motifs. There are also motifs related to woman's resistance to Dutch colonialization in the past.…

This article describes a study of selfies posted on Instagram by a group of predominantly white, college women at a large public university in the US South. Selfies are used as data to explore how performances of traditional femininity are legitimated, authorized, and reinscribed through photo-posting practices. The authors argue that these…

Situated learning experiences such as research apprenticeships can help connect girls to the sciences, ultimately helping to achieve gender equity in the science workforce. The material resources available in research apprenticeships--such as research equipment, field gear, etc.--may be particularly consequential for building identification with…

This study investigates the effects of formality of dress on ratings of classroom presentations. Participants (N = 65, 66% women) from a Midwestern university in the United States rated three female students giving a presentation designed for a health psychology class in one of four outfits: casual, party, business casual, or business formal.…

Just imagine: you live in a time before electricity. There are no sewing machines, no light bulbs, and certainly no television shows to keep you entertained. You spend six days a week working 12-hours each day inside your small home with four teenage girls and your elderly mother. This was the life of Mary Pickersgill, the woman who sewed the…

In the current Canadian neo-liberal labour market work-related learning and training are considered key strategies for developing workers' economic productivity and expediting their integration to the labour market. An important aspect of such training and learning now consists of soft-skills. Yet, some scholars are ambivalent about the nature of…

Sociologists have developed compelling pedagogical strategies to focus the undergraduate gaze on problems of gender and sexuality. Nested within the social construction of gender norms, the sexualization of girls and women negatively impacts individual, interpersonal, and societal levels of social interaction. Nevertheless, this important issue…

This article describes a collaborative research project that took place in two south-western US border towns and sought to understand how four "muslim" girls (age 14-17) expressed and negotiated their bodily learning experiences. Drawing on both the work of "arab-muslim" critical feminist Fatima Mernissi who utilized classical Islamic tools of…

Geometry certainly is in fashion, at the Henrietta Barnett School for girls in North London. Within the project "Engaging mathematics for all learners", led and funded by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), the Royal Institution of Great Britain (Ri) looked into how mathematical tasks usually reserved for the "gifted…

This article reports findings from a study in which 26 girls aged 12- to 13-years-old took part in workshops at a specialist ICT center connected to a school in inner-city London. The girls explored and discussed fashion as presented online, and they produced their own interactive fashion design webpages, making decisions about body shapes, types…

From a very young age, shoes for boys tend to be wider than shoes for girls. Is this because boys have wider feet, or because it is assumed that girls are willing to sacrifice comfort for fashion, even in elementary school? To assess the former, a statistician measures kids' feet. (Contains 2 tables and 3 figures.)